Evening Star, 28 January 1925, page 3: Gang 'Lord' Dying, Avengers Gather

Page 3 of the Evening Star of Wednesday, 28 January 1925. The story runs in the right-hand news column under the headline “Gang ‘Lord’ Dying, Avengers Gather” and the deck “Torrio Tells Only Henchmen Who Shot Him—Poisoned Bullets Used.” It is credited “By the Associated Press” and datelined Chicago, January 28.

The dispatch says John Torrio, whom it calls “reputed overlord of Chicago vice, bootlegging and gambling,” was near death after being shot the previous Saturday and had not told the police who shot him. It reports: “George Moran, pal of O’Banion, was charged last night with having attacked Torrio, although the wounded man and his wife denied Moran was in the automobile from which the volley was fired at Torrio.” It says the charge would be changed to murder if Torrio died, according to the chief of detectives, that Moran “was identified by a lad who witnessed the shooting,” and that “Vincent Drucci and Earl Weiss, also friends of O’Banion, were in technical custody, although likewise unidentified by the Torrios.” The OCR prints “Druccl” and “Karl Weiss”; the names are given here as the scan shows them.

This is a wire report of a police charge on the day it was made. It is not a record of what the charge led to, and this archive does not take from it that Moran took part in the shooting. The talk of “avengers” and poisoned bullets is the dispatch’s account of rumors, which this page does not repeat as fact. The Torrio shooting itself is covered on other filed pages; this page is filed for its report of the charge against Moran.